“That may occur, too, at a time when speculations the most weighty are on foot, and the currency previously in circulation is most required for the wants of the community! The evil will not thereby be doubled: it will be quadrupled. Like all mischievous panics, its effects will go on as the squares. Is it possible to contemplate such a state of things without the most serious apprehensions: without deep regret that it should be established and perpetuated by acts of parliament? Does it not annul the best effects of a paper currency, that of having an elastic quality which causes it to expand when the metallic currency is contracted, and so obviate the ruinous and lasting effects of such temporary diminution on general credit? Is it surprising, when such is the law, that the mercantile classes watch the sky; that rain for a month in autumn gives a serious shock to credit, and that stock of all kinds rises or falls with the changes of the barometer? The Banker’s Act of 1844 should be styled—‘An Act for the more effectual transferring of panics from agriculture to commerce, and for perpetuating commercial catastrophes in Great Britain.’”
When we compare the events predicted in this remarkable passage with those which have actually taken place—when we reflect that a bad harvest has occurred, that our gold has been drained, our paper circulation contracted, and the screw put on—we think there are few commercial men in the country who will not agree with us in wishing that Sir Robert Peel had really accepted Mr Alison “as the philosopher who is to instruct us on the currency.” For, most assuredly, there is no kind of philosophy which we can discover in the scheme that is now being tested at the expense of the merchants and manufacturers of the three kingdoms; unless it should be held philosophic that the whole commercial machinery of the country shall be exposed to annual dislocation, and that credit shall hereafter be liable to the present alarming point of contraction. Parliament, as we understand, is about to separate, without doing any thing whatever to remedy this monster grievance. Let the Whigs look to it. They are now to all intents and purposes the aiders and abettors of Sir Robert Peel. They hang upon his words, adopt his principles, and applaud his maxims to the skies. They hear from every quarter of the country the cry of unparalleled distress. An evil much greater than the scarcity is pressing upon the industrious classes, interfering with labour, checking trade, and depreciating the value of every kind of property. Manchester has been nearly at a stand-still, not from want of orders but from absolute want of accommodation; and yet the present ministry have neither the courage nor the capacity to step forward and afford that relief which is in their power, and which the nation is demanding at their hands. If, during the recess, and before a new parliament shall meet, the present lamentable state of matters is to continue, we say deliberately that no British ministry ever exposed themselves to such a frightful load of responsibility. Let them share it with their new ally and master. It may be that he intends, at some future time, to make a second push for popularity by throwing them overboard, and repealing his own most mischievous statute. But we trust that the electors throughout the country will take care that the new representative body shall not be constructed of the same malleable materials as its predecessor, and that no more experiments, involving the national prosperity and fortunes, shall be permitted, for the mere sake of gratifying the caprice and augmenting the vanity of an individual who has already brought the whole of us so close upon the verge of ruin.
Printed by William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] History of the Conquest of Peru; with a Preliminary View of the Civilisation of the Incas. By William H. Prescott. London: 1847.
[2] El Kebir, or the Great, is a term by which Mohammed Ali is usually designated among the fellahs of Egypt, to distinguish him from the mob of Pashas and the crowds of Mohammed Alis. Napoleon was called also El Kebir, as the greatest among the Ferenk dogs of the West.
[3] The Life of Jean Paul Frederick Richter. London: Chapman, 1845.
[4] Allemagne. English translation. London: 1813. Vol. ii. p. 339.
[5] A work on the Immortality of the Soul—a favourite theme with Richter.
[6] “Unitarian,” in the Political Dictionary of South America, is opposed to “Federal.” Rosas pretends to govern on “Federal” principles—that is, the separate legislative independence of each province of the “Confederation;” but, in fact, he has made himself a Unitarian, since he unites in himself (by “extraordinary powers,” given to him only for a season, but retained ever since) a supremacy over the other provinces, and over the law and constitution.